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Battle of Halle

1806 conflicts1806 in France1806 in Prussia19th century in SaxonyBattles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
Battles of the War of the Fourth Coalition involving PrussiaElectorate of SaxonyHalle (Saale)Military history of Saxony-AnhaltOctober 1806Use shortened footnotes from June 2021
SWEDERUS(1878) p405 Halle a.d. Saale, 17. Oktober 1806
SWEDERUS(1878) p405 Halle a.d. Saale, 17. Oktober 1806

In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806, a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses. The clash occurred in the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The city of Halle is located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Leipzig on the Saale River. Emperor Napoleon I of France invaded the Electorate of Saxony and inflicted two disastrous defeats on the Prussian-Saxon armies at the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt. As the beaten armies fled, Marshal Bernadotte's corps marched north and found Duke Eugene's Reserve, which had not yet seen action, at Halle. At the beginning of the encounter, two French divisions rushed the bridges over the Saale on the west side of the city. They overran a weak defending force and quickly occupied the city. In one stage of the battle, Bernadotte was advancing against superior numbers along a narrow causeway, to which Napoleon stated: "Bernadotte hesitates at nothing, one day the Gascon will get caught." (P.S.: Bernadotte was born in Pau, in the historical and cultural area of Gascony.) Later in the day, Bernadotte's troops stormed out of Halle and attacked Eugene's Reserve which was drawn up to the southeast of the city. The Prussians were driven from their positions and chased to the northeast. While this engagement was going on, Bernadotte's third division surrounded and captured a Prussian regiment isolated on the west side of the city. One of the few intact Prussian forces west of the Elbe River was now crippled.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Battle of Halle (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Battle of Halle
Kantstraße, Halle (Saale) Gesundbrunnen

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Wikipedia: Battle of HalleContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.4667 ° E 11.9667 °
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Kantstraße 1
06110 Halle (Saale), Gesundbrunnen
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
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SWEDERUS(1878) p405 Halle a.d. Saale, 17. Oktober 1806
SWEDERUS(1878) p405 Halle a.d. Saale, 17. Oktober 1806
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Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale)

Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (German: [ˈhalə]; from the 15th to the 17th century: Hall in Sachsen; until the beginning of the 20th century: Halle an der Saale [ˈhalə ʔan deːɐ̯ ˈzaːlə] (listen); from 1965 to 1995: Halle/Saale) is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the fifth most populous city in the area of former East Germany after (East) Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, as well as the 31st largest city of Germany, and with around 239,000 inhabitants, it is slightly more populous than the state capital of Magdeburg. Together with Leipzig, the largest city of Saxony, Halle forms the polycentric Leipzig-Halle conurbation. Between the two cities, in Schkeuditz, lies Leipzig/Halle International Airport. The Leipzig-Halle conurbation is at the heart of the larger Central German Metropolitan Region. Halle lies in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Leipzig Bay, the southernmost part of the North German Plain, on the River Saale (a tributary of the Elbe), which is the third longest river flowing entirely in Germany after the Weser and the Main. The White Elster flows into the Saale in the southern borough of Silberhöhe. Halle is the fourth largest city in the Thuringian-Upper Saxon dialect area after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz. Halle is an economic and educational center in central Germany. The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, with campuses in Halle and Wittenberg, is the largest university in Saxony-Anhalt, one of the oldest universities in Germany, and a nurturing ground for the local startup ecosystem. The university hospital of Halle (Universitätsklinikum Halle (Saale)) is the largest hospital in the state.